Griffins Leave It All On The Court In Quest For Another State Title

If one word was used to describe the Diller-Odell Griffins volleyball season it would be resilient. In the first round of sub-districts the Griffins battled back to win in five sets 3-2 against the Sterling Jets. Then despite losing to Sacred Heart on October 26 in the sub-district final 2-3, the Griffins season continued on due to Wild Card points from their season as they took on the Bertrand Vikings on October 30 in the district finals.During that week Diller-Odell lost their lead hitter Karli Heidemann to an injury, and instead of falling apart, they rallied together to claim the district championship sweeping the Vikings 3-0. The Griffins season would then come to an end in the first round of state volleyball as they would fall to the Maywood/Hayes Center Wolves 3-1.The Griffins lost 22-25, 23-25, 26-24, 16-25.Lilly Swanson had 27 kills in the match and Mad Meyerle 17. Myleigh Weers had four blocks for Diller-Odell. Keira Hennerberg notched 47 assists.With the season coming to an end for Diller-Odell, their record for the 2021 season stands at 23-10 overall record and 5-4 in league. A season full of learning curves, the Griffins made certain that every set was a battle and that was evident on the defensive side with team’s managing to get past the front wall, only to be frustrated with the tenacious effort shown by the Griffins digging up the hits that came their way.Senior Mad Meyerle was a great example of that effort as she led the team with 307 digs, senior Karli Heidemann, not only an offensive force, but a reliable defensive player as she ended the season with 282 digs.The two seniors led by an example that was recognized and echoed in stride as the Griffins future looks bright with players such as sophomore Hennerberg who was one dig shy of 200 as she ended the season with 199, sophomore Lilly Swanson ended two digs shy of 200 with 198, and freshmen Ashley Duis getting 153 digs, and Baileigh Vilda managed 106 digs.For the Griffins front wall of defense, it was led by their younger class with Swanson leading the team with 75 total blocks, and freshman Myleigh Weers was able to get 55 blocks. Karli Heidemann also got involved with blocking as she had 44, and Baileigh Vilda was able to get 33.On the offensive side, Diller-Odell’s passing was a consistent factor to their strategy, with the first pass being where it needed to be, with Meyerle leading the serves received with 483, Heidemann received 362 serves, Swanson had 343, and Ashley Duis had 265. The first pass was set up for Hennerberg as the main source of facilitating the assists as she led the team with 850 assists on the season. On the receiving end of those assists was the likes of Karli Heidemann getting over 500 kills as she racked up 522 to lead the Griffins offense.Lilly Swanson came up with 230 kills, and Madelyn Meyerle provided 223 kills. While the senior duo of Karli Heidemann and Madelyn Meyerle were a great example of a defensive effort, they also showed a consistent effort with serving aces as Heidemann led the team with 58, and Meyerle served up 56 aces. Ashley Duis was able to serve 28 aces, Baileigh Vilda managed 25, and Lilly Swanson had 24 aces served.

11.17.21

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